Hi, a followup to my initial impressions of the Howell .22 1860 conversion cylinder:
I took a Pietta 1860 revolver with the conversion cylinder and .22 barrel installed out back to do some accuracy testing. I loaded up 6 and moved to 25yds from my steel targets . After cocking and aiming, I pulled the trigger, click. I tried 3 more times, click, click, click. After the first attempt I assumed it was just a bad .22 primer, but after more failures, there's a problem here with this conversion. A little study shows that the bottom of the hammer area just below the sight cutout was hitting on the rim of the conversion cylinder and not allowing the hammer to drive the firing pins home. To test if this was just a fluke on the one Pietta 1860, I tested another Pietta 1860 and Pietta .44 1851. All these Pietta revolvers where purchased new in the last 3 years. They all failed to fire. It appears that a solution is to grind down each of my hammer ends, that's something I will not do. The rear of the conversion cylinder can't be narrowed any more since the firing pin bushings are already at the cylinder edge.
Needless to say, this new Howell .22 conversion cylinder with full length barrel is a bust, it's going back for a refund. It amazes me that this prototype ever got out of Howells door. I'm disappointed.
Regards,
Richard